1.2 Insertion Point

By moving your mouse across the editing screen you can see the insertion point as a vertical endcapped line. You can quickly move your cursor to any point in your document by moving the insertion point to the appropriate place and clicking on the left mouse button.

1.3 Toolbars

At the top of your screen you may see one or more toolbars.

The Standard Toolbar has buttons showing icons for functions such as:
New Open Save Print Print Preview Spellcheck etc.

The Formatting Toolbar has buttons for functions such as:
Font Font Size Bold Italics Underline etc.

If you move your pointer slowly across the toolbars a label will appear, describing what each button is used for.

You can choose which toolbars you have visible by clicking on the View dropdown menu and choosing toolbars. A dialogue box will appear showing check boxes. You can make your choice by clicking each box to turn the checks on or off. For the purpose of this course you will need to use both the Standard and the Formatting Toolbars.

1.4 Scroll Bar You can scroll up and down your screen using the vertical scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen. The single arrow at the top will take you higher up your page and the single arrow at the bottom will take you further down. If your document contains more than one page, you can scroll up or down a full page at a time by clicking the double up and double down arrows respectively. There may also be a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen that will allow you to scroll from left to right.

The Keyboard
1.5 Cursor Movement

The cursor will move when you type text. It will also move when you:
Press the spacebar - Press the Tab key - Press the Enter Key - Delete Text

1.6 Deleting Text

There are two keys that are used to delete text:
The delete key will delete characters to the right of the cursor.
The backspace delete key will delete characters to the left of the cursor.

1.7 Using the cursor keys

These are the four arrows to the bottom right of the QWERTY keys. They will move the cursor in the direction shown by each arrow, but only over existing text or spaces made by the spacebar or Enter key.

Working with Documents
1.8 To save your document:

With your pointer on the File menu, click the left mouse button. From the drop-down menu choose Save as.. A dialogue box will appear and you will see that the cursor is flashing in the "File name" section. You should give your file a name but keep it short, for example exer1b If the box appears with text already in it, this will disappear when you begin to type a new name.

You must also specify which drive and folder you want to save your file to. Click on the arrow in the "Save in:" section to display a list of available drives and folders. Double click on the one you require.

You will normally save and organise all of your files within the My documents folder.

Click the "OK" button.

NOTE To save any changes made to a document that has previously been named and saved: With your pointer on the File menu click the left mouse button. From the drop-down menu choose Save…

1.9 To Open your document:

With your pointer on the File menu click the left mouse button. From the drop-down menu choose "Open" A dialogue box will appear and you will see that the cursor is flashing in the "File name" section. If the name of your file is listed you can open it by double clicking on it. If your file is not listed you may need to search in a different folder or a different drive.

You will find other folders listed in the "Look in" section. Click on the arrow to the right of the "Look in" box to see the dropdown list. You can select any one of the listed folders by double clicking on it.

A list of all the files within each folder will appear in the large box.
Double click on your file to open it.

1.10 To exit your document:

With your pointer on the file menu click the left mouse button. From the drop-down menu choose "Close"
OR
Click your left mouse button on the lower X in the top right of your screen.

1.11 To print your document:

With your pointer on the file menu click the left mouse button. From the drop-down menu choose "Print" The Print dialogue box will open giving you several options for printing.

You can choose: How many copies of your document you want to print. Whether to print: - all of the pages in your document, - just the one on which you cursor currently is, - or you can select any page by its number. Click "OK" to print your document.

1.12 Using Spell check:

To check the spelling in your document you can

Either - Click on the Tools dropdown menu and choose "Spelling and Grammar"
Or - Click on the icon on the toolbar.

The spelling dialogue box will open and any words that are not recognised as being correct will be highlighted one by one. You can choose to either change the word or ignore it by clicking on the appropriate button. To stop spell check at any time click Cancel.

Another dialogue box will appear when your spell check is complete. Click "OK"

Note: Spell check may be set to check spelling and grammar as you type and will show as red and green squiggly lines. This facility can be turned off or on as required by un-checking or checking the boxes in the options section of the spell check dialogue box.

1.13 Restoring a deletion:

Any moves you make in error can be undone by clicking on the Edit dropdown menu and choosing "Undo"

Formatting Text - Ensure that your formatting toolbar is visible

1.14 To use Bold, Italics and Underline:
Click on the corresponding buttons on the button bar shown as

This will turn the formatting codes on.

Type your text.

Click on the buttons again to turn the codes off.

Existing text must first be selected before any formatting can be applied to it.

1.15 To select text:

Position the insertion point at the beginning of the text to be selected.

Hold down the left button on your mouse and drag across the text.

When the required text has been highlighted release the mouse button.

You can now apply formatting such as 'Bold' to the selected text.

1.16 To centre text:

From the formatting toolbar click on the Centre button (this is the second in the group of four justification buttons positioned to the right of Underline).

Type in your text.

Click the Centre button again to turn it off.

Existing text may be centred by first selecting it and then clicking on the Centre button.

1.17 To change the justification of text:

Any text can be justified (aligned) as required by selecting it and using the justification buttons on the formatting toolbar. Text can be justified left (flush to the left margin), right (flush to the right margin), centre (spaced evenly from the centre of the page) or full (flush to both margins).

1.18 To change the size of text:

Select the text to be re-sized by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your cursor over the text.

Click on the "down arrow" button to the left of the Bold button on the formatting toolbar. A dropdown box will appear showing several font sizes. The one you are currently using will be highlighted.

You can either choose a size from the list by clicking it or you can type in the size you want.

1.19 To change the appearance of text:

Select the text you want to change by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your cursor over the text

On the formatting toolbar Click the "down arrow" button to the right of the window that shows the name of the font you are currently using (this is probably Times New Roman).

A dropdown box will appear showing several font sizes. The one you are currently using will be highlighted.

You can choose a new font from the list by clicking it.

1.20 To change to double line spacing:

Choose Format from the dropdown menu.

Click on Paragraph and from the dialogue box choose Indents and Spacing

In the Spacing section, click on the down arrow below Line spacing at

Choose Double and click OK

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